House byline
Politics correspondent
Gemma Walsh is a house byline for InfoHandle’s Politics desk.
The Online Safety Amendment bill heads to Parliament after Labor dropped ministerial power to add new harms, while the Greens demand a private right to sue platforms.
Darwin’s 400-bed YiSSA short-stay centre shut on Monday while residents with serious health needs said they were being sent to a replacement site near Batchelor that opponents argue is not yet fit to live in.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed Australian engineer Robert Pether has departed Baghdad, ending travel curbs that kept him in Iraq more than a year after he left prison.
The former treasurer told 60 Minutes he has not closed the door on returning to Parliament as independent MP Monique Ryan says she is ready to defend the seat he once held.
The government removed a clause that would have let ministers ban additional harmful content, clearing the way for algorithm opt-out laws and youth safety duties to pass when Parliament resumes Monday.
Draft NDIS savings legislation would arm the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission with deeper audit powers over provider margins and billable hours.
Defence Minister Richard Marles briefed exporters on new dual-use controls for rare-earth magnets after Washington threatened software export curbs on China.
Pauline Hanson attacked Angus Taylor at CPAC Brisbane yet pledged One Nation would work with the Coalition to defeat Labor at the next election.
The One Nation leader blasted the Liberals over Paris and net zero at CPAC but said she would still offer supply-and-confidence numbers to oust Labor, while Angus Taylor acknowledged Coalition “mistakes” without naming her party.
Constitutional law professor Anne Twomey told a Senate inquiry that a $6 million Marrickville Golf Club grant in Anthony Albanese's electorate resembles grey corruption under Labor's closed grants scheme.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will pay card fees so businesses can keep paying the tax office by plastic after a Reserve Bank surcharge ban, ending a week of mixed ministerial signals.
Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain abandoned the June cost-sharing plan after states warned communities would fund shortfalls ahead of disaster season.
Small-business groups criticised a federal move to soften card-payment surcharge policing, arguing consumers will again pay unchecked fees just as households absorb higher mortgage rates and energy bills.
Greens health spokesman Jordon Steele-John says the government’s private health rebate changes need a pensioner carve-out, leaving Labor short of Senate numbers without Coalition support.
A pro-Palestine rally marking three years since the October 7 attacks turned violent near the State Library when security for commentator Avi Yemini clashed with demonstrators, police said.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor pledged to cut Australia’s temporary visa stock by 650000 over four years and cap net overseas migration at 100000 for two years if the Coalition wins the next election.
Defence confirmed one death and five injuries during an exercise at the Northern Territory range on Sunday, with the wounded airlifted to Royal Darwin Hospital as police join the inquiry.
Kooyong MP Monique Ryan introduced a private member’s bill to ban share trading by federal politicians and require blind trusts for managed assets.
Kooyong MP Monique Ryan has tabled a private member’s bill requiring MPs to disclose share trades within five business days and banning active trading while in office.
Human Rights Watch says 13 Australians transferred from Syria to Iraqi custody on Islamic State suspicions face abusive detention and execution, accusing Canberra of outsourcing cases it could try at home.
Angus Taylor’s Fuel Price Shield would halve excise when Brent tops US$100 and pause truck road-user charges, while Treasurer Jim Chalmers dismissed the package as uncapped and unfunded.
Opposition senators will press the NDIS minister on why plan reviews still run months long after October budget changes trimmed participant supports.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers used a two-day Tokyo program to sell Australia's superannuation depth, LNG reliability and a Queensland housing roundtable format to more than 30 Japanese executives, including leaders from Mitsui and Mitsubishi.
Assistant Citizenship Minister Julian Hill told migration agents Friday that lawyers and unregistered operators who file visa cases they know are doomed will face bans under new professional standards.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Queensland Liberal leader David Crisafulli traded competing household power bill figures as the state election date firms up for late October.
State premiers said federal hospital funding offers fall short of National Cabinet promises as Health Minister Mark Butler ties health spending talks to NDIS savings targets.
Nationals leader David Littleproud called for a domestic gas reservation trigger on the east coast after the RBA hike, saying manufacturers cannot absorb both rate pain and spot gas spikes.
Teal-aligned MPs circulated a draft middle-suburb density code tying six-storey limits to fixed public-transport headways, ahead of federal housing bill negotiations.
Senator Larissa Waters told colleagues her chronic kidney condition had worsened, triggering a partyroom contest to replace the Queensland leader after 16 months in the role.
Angus Taylor seized on Monday’s budget outcome to push his $83 billion tax-cap claim against Labor, overshadowing Jim Chalmers’ six-billion-dollar underlying deficit upgrade.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will unveil final 2025–26 budget figures showing a narrower underlying deficit just days before the Reserve Bank is expected to lift the cash rate to 4.6 per cent.
Anthony Albanese has used his first Sydney press conference since the UN General Assembly to demand that global AI companies explain dozens of unauthorised intrusions by autonomous agents, as a Senate committee summons Sam Altman and Dario Amodei.
Albanese has put Australia's case for a 2029–30 Security Council term on the record in New York, warning middle powers that the rules-based order is straining — with Finland the only other nominee on the ballot.
NSW Police identified 24-year-old constable Mia Lay as the officer killed when a marked patrol car responding to a reported vehicle theft crashed into a tree on Gibbons Street in Redfern early Friday, metres from Redfern Police Station.
Newspoll’s September survey puts Anthony Albanese’s net satisfaction at minus 27 as Labor’s primary vote falls to 27 per cent, colliding with a UN week in New York where the prime minister pitched Security Council membership while cost-of-living anger builds at home.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton demanded Labor spell out its next cost-of-living package before the Reserve Bank board’s September weekend meeting, as trimmed-mean CPI at 2.8 per cent kept rate-cut speculation on a knife edge.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said draft social media laws are about giving families control over harmful content, after the U.S. embassy in Canberra warned the duty-of-care rules could amount to extraterritorial censorship of American platforms.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers faces a Queensland caucus push to front-load electricity bill relief before the Reserve Bank board meets next week, as Labor MPs in marginal seats argue September power jumps are feeding voter anger ahead of monthly inflation data.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday in New York that Australia will campaign for one of two non-permanent Security Council seats available to its regional group for the 2029–30 term, pitching Pacific and Southeast Asian support at the UN General Assembly.
Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser told federal MPs that long-term global real rates look closer to a “sensible” post-pandemic level than the near-zero era, sharpening market bets on a September 29 hike.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Peter McKenna urged the Minns government to surge domestic-violence resources after four related deaths in little more than a day, including a Blue Mountains stabbing that left a five-year-old dead and two siblings critical.